Racing

The term Racing in gaming usually refers to the genre or category, which usually consists of some kind of vehicle competing against other vehicles on a series of different tracks or levels, where the goal is to reach the end before everyone else. Racing games do not always have to feature vehicles, though. Some games such as Sonic R just features characters running.

Contents

Racing Sub-Genres

There are many racing sub-genres that are very different from each other. While they all share the same goal of getting to the end of the track before everyone else, the gameplay and focus is different for each sub-genre.

History

1970s

The arcade gameAstro Race, released by Taito in 1973, was an early racing game, where players controlled spaceships that race against opposing ships, while avoiding comets and meteors. The game allowed simultaneous two-player competitive gameplay, was controlled using an early four-way joystick, and was presented in black and white graphics.[1] The following year, Taito released Speed Race, an early black-and-white car racing game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado (of Space Invaders fame),[2] who considers it to be "the first arcade driving game".[3] The game's most important innovations were its introductions of collision detection and scrolling graphics, specifically overhead vertical scrolling,[4] with the course width becoming wider or narrower as the player's car moves up the road, while the player races against other rival cars, more of which appear as the score increases. It also featured an early racing wheelcontroller interface with an accelerator, gear shift, speedometer and tachometer. It could be played in either single-player or alternating two-player, where each player attempts to beat the other's score.[5] The game was re-branded as Racer by Midway Games for released in the United States and was influential on later racing games.[4] That same year, Atari released another early car driving game in the arcades, Gran Trak 10, which presented an overhead single-screen view of the track in low resolution white on black graphics, on which the player races against the clock around a track to accumulate points; while challenging, it was not competition racing.[6] In 1975, Nintendo released EVR-Race, an early horse racingsimulation game with support for up to six players.[7]

In 1976, Taito released Crashing Race, a simultaneous two-player competitive car racing game where each player must try to crash as many computer-controlled cars as possible to score points, and the player with the most points wins.[8] That same year, Sega released Moto-Cross, an early black-and-white motorbike racing game, based on the motocross competition, that was most notable for introducing an early three-dimensional third-person perspective.[9] Later that year, Sega-Gremlin re-branded the game as Fonz, as a tie-in for the popular sitcom, Happy Days.[10] Both versions of the game displayed a constantly changing forward-scrolling road and the player's bike in a third-person perspective where objects nearer to the player are larger than those nearer to the horizon, and the aim was to steer the vehicle across the road, racing against the clock, while avoiding any on-coming motorcycles or driving off the road.[9][10] The game also introduced the use of haptic feedback, which caused the motorcycle handlebars to vibrate during a collision with another vehicle.[11] That same year also saw the release of two arcade games that extended the car driving subgenre into three dimensions with a first-person perspective: Sega's Road Race, which presents a roadside scene of the race, displaying a constantly changing forward-scrolling S-shaped road with two obstacle race cars moving along the road that the player must avoid crashing while racing against the clock,[12] and Atari's Night Driver, which presented a series of posts by the edge of the road though there was no view of the road or the player's car and the graphics were still low resolution white on black, and like Gran Trek 10, gameplay was a race against the clock.

In 1977, Micronetics released Night Racer, a first-person car racing game similar to Night Driver,[13] while Sega released Twin Course T.T., an early simultaneous competitive two-player motorbike racing game.[14] That same year, UPL's Comotion was an early four-player car racing game, with an overhead view.[15]Road Champion, released by Taito in 1978, was an overhead-view timed car racing game where players try to race ahead of the opposing cars and cross the finish line first to become the winner.[16] In 1979, Sega's Head On was a racing game that played like a maze chase game and is thus considered a precursor to the 1980 hit Pac-Man.[17]Monaco GP, released by Sega in 1979,[18] improved upon previous overhead-view racing games with a vertically scrolling view and color graphics. Another notable video game from the 1970s was The Driver, a racing-action game released by Kasco (Kansai Seiki Seisakusho Co.) that used 16 mm film to project full motion video on screen, though its gameplay had limited interaction, requiring the player to match their steering wheel, gas pedal and brakes with movements shown on screen, much like the sequences in later laserdisc video games.[19]

The game that set the template for racing video games was the Namco game Pole Position in 1982. This time the player has AI cars to race against, and a time limit pushes the player to go faster. Pole Position is also the first game to be based on a real racing circuit. The game introduced color graphics at a much higher resolution than earlier titles and pioneered the now common rear-view racer format used in nearly all racing games since then. It also featured crashes caused by collisions with other vehicles and roadside signs, and was the first game to feature a qualifying lap, where the player needs to complete a time trial before they can compete in Grand Prix races. The game's publisher Atari publicized the game for its "unbelievable driving realism" in providing a Formula 1 experience behind a racing wheel at the time,[27] for which it is considered the first attempt at a driving simulation.[28] The game's graphics featured full-colour landscapes with scaling sprites, including race cars and other signs, and a perspective view of the track, with its vanishing point swaying side to side as the player approaches corners, accurately simulating forward movement into the distance.[29]

Pole Position II was released in 1983, and featured improvements like giving the player the choice of different race courses as well as more colourful landscapes lined with advertising bill-boards.[30]TX-1, developed by Tatsumi in 1983,[31] was licensed to Namco,[32] who in turn licensed it to Atari in America,[32] thus the game is considered a successor to Pole Position II.[32]TX-1, however, placed a greater emphasis on realism, with details such as forcing players to brake or downshift the gear during corners to avoid the risk of losing control, and let go of the accelerator when going into a skid in order to regain control of the steering. It was also the first car driving game to use force feedback technology, which caused the steering wheel to vibrate, and the game also featured a unique three-screen arcade display for a more three-dimensional perspective of the track. It also introduced nonlinear gameplay by allowing players to choose which path to drive through after each checkpoint, eventually leading to one of eight possible final destinations.[32]Change Lanes, released by Taito in 1983, was a third-person racer where the player's car had fuel that reduces while driving, thus the driver must pick-up fuel cells to get a refuel at each checkpoint, while crashing into cars or obstacles would slow down the car and further reduce its fuel. If the fuel runs out, the game would end.[33] That same year, Kaneko produced Roller Aces, an early roller skating racer played from a third-person perspective,[34] while Irem released MotoRace USA, an early partially third-person motorbike racer,[35] where the player travels across the US and refuels at various cities along the way, while avoiding crashes that can cause a substantial loss of fuel, causing the game to end if the fuel is depleted.[36] An early attempt at creating a home driving simulator was Tomy's Turnin' Turbo Dashboard, also released in 1983. It was the first home video game to feature a racing wheel controller.[37]

Racing games in general tend to drift toward the arcade side of reality, mainly due to hardware limitations, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. It is, however, untrue to say that there were no games considered simulations in their time. In 1984, Geoff Crammond, who later developed the Grandprix series (Known collectively as GPX to its fanbase), produced what is considered the first attempt at a racing simulator on a home system, REVS, released for the BBC Microcomputer. The game offered an unofficial (and hence with no official team or driver names associated with the series) recreation of British Formula 3. The hardware capabilities limited the depth of the simulation and restricted it (initially) to one track, but it offered a semi-realistic driving experience with more detail than most other racing games at the time.[51]

In 1985, Sega released Hang-On, a popular Grand Prix style rear-view motorbike racer,[52] considered the first full-body-experience video game,[53] and was regarded as the first motorbike simulator for its realism at the time, in both the handling of the player's motorbike and the artificial intelligence of the computer-controlled motorcyclists.[52] It used force feedback technology and was also one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit graphics and Sega's "Super Scaler" technology that allowed pseudo-3Dsprite-scaling at high frame rates.[54] That same year, Jaleco released City Connection, a platform-racer where cops chase the player around different cities in the US, UK, France, Japan and India.[55]

In 1986, Durell released Turbo Esprit, which had an official Lotus license, and featured working car indicator lights. Also in 1986, Sega produced Out Run, one of the most graphically impressive games of its time. It used two Motorola 68000 CPUs for its 2D sprite-based driving engine, and it became an instant classic that spawned many sequels. It was notable for giving the player the non-linear choice of which route to take through the game and the choice of soundtrack to listen to while driving,[56] represented as radio stations. The game also featured up to five multiple endings depending on the route taken, and each one was an ending sequence rather than a simple "Congratulations" as was common in game endings at the time.[57] That same year, Konami's WEC Le Mans was a race driving simulator that attempted to accurately simulate the 24 Hours of Le Mans competition, with fairly realistic handling, a day-night cycle, and the use of force feedback to simulate road vibration in the form of a vibrating steering wheel that reacts to the driver's acceleration and off-road bumps.[58] In 1987, Namco produced Final Lap,[59] the unofficial sequel to Pole Position II. Final Lap was the first arcade game that allowed multiple machines to be linked, allowing for multiplayer races.[59] That same year, Square released Rad Racer, one of the first stereoscopic 3D games.[60] In the same year, Atari produced RoadBlasters, a driving game that also involved a bit of shooting.

In 1988, Taito released Chase H.Q., a unique racing game where the player drives a police car that must chase criminals within a time limit.[61] That same year, CBS Sony released Paris-Dakar Rally Special, an imaginative racing game with platformer and action-adventure elements, featuring Dakar Rally cars that could fire bullets, the driver able to exit the car and go exploring to lower a bridge or bypass other obstacles, underwater driving sections, and at times having avoid a fleet of tanks and fighter jets.[62] The following year, Atari introduced Hard Drivin', the first arcade driving game that included 3D polygonal graphics. It also featured force feedback, where the wheel fights the player during aggressive turns, and also featured a crash replay camera view.

1990s

In 1990, the now defunct Papyrus Design Group produced their first attempt at a racing simulator, the critically acclaimed Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, designed by David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari. The game is generally regarded as the first true auto racing simulation on a personal computer. Accurately replicating the 1989 Indianapolis 500 grid, it offered advanced 3D graphics for its time, setup options, car failures and handling. Unlike most other racing games at the time, Indianapolis 500 attempted to simulate realistic physics and telemetry, such as its portrayal of the relationship between the four contact patches and the pavement, as well as the loss of grip when making a high-speed turn, forcing the player to adopt a proper racing line and believable throttle-to-brake interaction. It also featured a garage facility to allow players to enact modifications to their vehicle, including adjustments to the tires, shocks and wings.[51] The damage modelling, while not accurate by today's standards, was capable of producing some spectacular and entertaining pile-ups.

Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix in 1992 became the new champion of sim racing, until the release of Papyrus' IndyCar Racing the following year.[63]Formula One Grand Prix boasted detail that was unparalleled for a computer game at the time as well as a full recreation of the drivers, cars and circuits of the 1991 Formula One World Championship. However, the U.S. version (known as World Circuit) was not granted an official license by the FIA, so teams and drivers were renamed (though all could be changed back to their real names using the Driver/Team selection menu): Ayrton Senna became "Carlos Sanchez", for example.

On the other end of the spectrum, Sega produced Virtua Racing in 1992. While not the first game with 3D graphics (see REVS), it was able to combine the best features of games at the time, along with multiplayer machine linking and clean 3D graphics to produce a game that was above and beyond the arcade market standard of its time. Also, Nintendo broke new ground by introducing the Mario Kart series on the SNES with Super Mario Kart. Using the familiar characters from the Mario franchise, the game not only departed from the realism paradigm by using small karts for the players to drive, but also featured bright, colourful environments and allowed the players to pick up power-ups to improve performance or hamper other racers. This franchise also spawned multiple sequels.

In 1997, Gran Turismo was released for the PlayStation, after being in production for five years since 1992.[67] It was considered the most realistic racing simulation game in its time,[68] combined with playability, enabling players of all skill levels to play. It offered a wealth of meticulous tuning options and introduced an open-endedcareer mode where players had to undertake driving tests to acquire driving licenses, earn their way into races and choose their own career path.[68] The Gran Turismo series has since become the most popular racing game franchise of all time, selling over 61.41 million units worldwide.[69]

By 1997, the typical PC was capable of matching an arcade machine in terms of graphical quality, mainly due to the introduction of first generation 3D accelerators such as 3DFX Voodoo. The faster CPUs were capable of simulating increasingly realistic physics, car control, and graphics. Colin McRae Rally was introduced in 1998 to the PC world, and was a successful semi-simulation of the world of rally driving, previously only available in the less serious Sega Rally Championship. Motorhead, a PC game, was later adapted back to arcade.

1999 marked a change of games into more "free form" worlds. Midtown Madness for the PC allows the player to explore a simplified version of the city of Chicago using a variety of vehicles and any path that they desire. In the arcade world, Sega introduced Crazy Taxi, a sandbox racing game where you are a taxi driver that needed to get the client to the destination in the shortest amount of time.[70] A similar game also from Sega is Emergency Ambulance Driver, with almost the same gameplay (pick up patient, drop off at hospital, as fast as possible). Games are becoming more and more realistic visually. Some arcade games are now featuring 3 screens to provide a surround view.

2000s

In 2000, Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego) introduced the first free-roaming, or the former "free form", racing game on video game consoles and handheld game consoles with Midnight Club: Street Racing which released on the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance. The game allowed the player to drive anywhere around virtual recreations of London and New York. Instead of using enclosed tracks for races, the game uses various checkpoints on the free roam map as the pathway of the race, giving the player the option to take various shortcuts or any other route to the checkpoints of the race.

In 2003, Rockstar San Diego's Midnight Club II was the first racing game to feature both playable cars and playable motorcycles.

↑ 4.04.1Bill Loguidice & Matt Barton (2009), Vintage games: an insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time, p. 197, Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-81146-8